Aren’t humans just brilliant? How quickly we adapt to a new way of living and working. I consider myself amongst the most inflexible of the race and nearly wobbled with my daily routine.
However, I’ve maintained my 5am start. My early morning getting on top of emails, meditating, exercise and a good breakfast seem more important now than ever. Most days this is the only me-time I get. I even enjoy the small shifts in when and where I have breakfast. Where I have failed is my evening walk. Unexpected work calls mean this is most likely to be shelved.
So many of us have settled uncomplainingly into moving between a small number of rooms. Over the working day we share endless WhatsApp pictures of our cats/dogs being cute for our work colleagues, morale-boosting memes and pictures of lunch. All of this new normality amongst the most incredible upheaval around us whilst juggling totally new workstreams. We are brilliant and must remember this.
I’m not one of those on social media that’s going to pretend there haven’t been wobbles. Of course there have. And there will again. That adaptability and of course good old empathy, really help here. With no rules, there’s no solution that can’t be found.
My focus remains on generating revenue. Like others in the sector, be that private, third or fourth, we’re not making any money. Furloughing remains on the table in tandem with radical new ideas and making applications for restricted income.
On the one hand if feels like the clock is about to be turned back about four years. Everything I have done to move away from restricted income has turned 180 degrees. There is a risk again of reliance on restricted income to survive. As we enter week four these larger strategic decisions must be made. Is this viable, right for a CIC, right for our offer and right for our impact?
A huge number of unknowns remain, especially about the state of the economy when we re-emerge. It seems likely that there will be a colossal need for what we do. Will anyone have the money to turn that need into a demand for our services? Should we then turn to restricted income because it’s the right thing to do – to meet a need?
The vast goodwill of donations, generosity of time and flexibility will surely cease this summer. What then for a trading social enterprise and a CEO that had set her heart on this model?
